Paris, January 21st, 1850 

A great many important events have occurred since my last, but as 
the generality of readers will have been informed of them from the 
daily and weekly papers, I shall refrain from going over the same 
ground from beginning to end, and instead shall limit this letter to 
some general observations on the state of the country. 

During the last twelve or fifteen months, the revolutionary spirit 
has made immense progress throughout France. A class, which by its 
social position was kept apart, as much as possible in civilised society, 
from taking an interest in public business, which by the old 
monartchical legislation was shut out from all political rights, which 
never read a newspaper, and which, nevertheless, forms the vast 
majority of Frenchmen—this class, at last, is rapidly coming to its 
senses. This class is the small peasantry, numbering about twenty- 
eight millions of men, women, and children, counting amongst its 
ranks from eight to nine millions of small landed proprietors, who 
possess, in the shape of freehold * property, at least four-fifths of the 
soil of France. This class has been oppressed by all governments 
since 1815, not excepting the provisional government, which 
imposed on it the tax of 45 additional centimes upon every franc of 
the land-tax,» which in France is very heavy. This class,borne down 
also by a band of usurers to whom their property almost without 
exception is mortgaged at extraordinary high interest, is at last 
beginning to see that no government, except one acting in the 
interest of the working men of the towns, will free them from the 
misery and starvation into which, notwithstanding their land- 
allotments, they are falling deeper and deeper every day.* This class, 

which in a great measure forced the revolution of 1789, and which 
formed the basement upon which arose the vast empire of 
Napoleon, has now, in its immense majority, joined the revolu- 
tionary party and the working men of Paris, Lyons, Rouen, and the 
other large towns of France. The tillers of the soil now see clearly 
enough how they have been cheated by Louis Napoleon, to whose 
presidential majority they at least furnished six millions of votes, and 
who has repaid them with the re-imposition of the wine and brandy 
tax. And thus, the vast majority of the French people are now united 
to overthrow, as soon as a proper occasion shall present itself, the 
insolent sway of the capitalist class, which, hurled down by the storm 
of February, has again seized the helm of government, and exercises 
its rule far more arrogantly than ever it did under its own 
well-beloved Louis Philippe. 

The history of the last months affords innumerable proofs of this | 
most important fact. Take the circular of Minister d’Hautpoul to 
the gendarmerie, by which espionage is carried into the very heart 
of the most obscure village; take the law against the schoolmasters,36 
who, in French villages, are generally the best expression of the 
public opinion of their localities, and who are now to be placed at the 
mercy of government, because they now almost all profess social- 
democratic opinions; and many other facts. But one of the most 
striking proofs is to be found in the election which has just taken 
place in the department du Gard.3’ This department is known as the 
most ancient stronghold of the “Whites”—the Legitimists.38 It was 
the scene of the most horrid outrages against the republicans in 1794 
and 95, after the downfall of Robespierre; it was the central seat of 
the “white terrorism” in 1815, when Protestants and Liberals were 
publicly murdered, and outrages of the most horrible nature were 
committed on the wives, daughters, and sisters of those victims by 
Legitimist mobs, headed by the renowned Trestaillon, and protected 
by the government of legitimate Louis XVIII. Well, this department 
had to elect a deputy, in the place of a Legitimist, deceased *; and the 
result was, a great majority for a thoroughly Red candidate,” while 
the two Legitimist candidates were in a signal minority.‘ 

Another proof of the rapid progress of this alliance of the working 
men in the towns and the peasantry of the country, is the new law on 
public education.** The most inveterate Voltairians of the 
bourgeoisie, even M. Thiers, see there is no way left to oppose that 

progress but by surrendering their old theories and principles, and 
by prostrating public education at the feet of the priesthood! 

Again. There is, now, a general rush of all public papers and 
public characters, that are not exactly reactionaries, to claim the once 
despised title of “Socialist”. The oldest enemies of Socialism now 
proclaim themselves Socialists. The National, even the Siécle, 
monarchist.under Louis Philippe, declare they are Socialists. Even 
Marrast, the infamous traitor of 1848, now hopes, though in vain, to 
get elected by proclaiming himself a Socialist. The people, however, 
are not thus to be duped, and the rope to hang that vagabond is 
ready, and only waiting for the occasion. 

To-day they discuss in the National Assembly the law for killing 
the remaining 468 prisoners of the June insurrection,” by transport- 
ing them to, and setting them to work in the most unhealthy parts of 
Algeria. No doubt the law will pass by an immense majority. But 
before the unfortunate heroes of that grand battle of labour can 
reach the shore destined to bury them, there is little doubt but 
another popular storm will have swept away the voters of this law of 
murder, and carry, perhaps, to that land of banishment, those of the 
present majority who may have escaped a prompter, more radical, 
and most righteous revenge on the part of the people. 

Ill